Suspended Georgia insurance chief convicted of fraud – KIRO 7 News Seattle

ATLANTA – (AP) – A jury sentenced Georgia’s suspended insurance officials Thursday afternoon on all 37 fraud and money laundering cases against him in order to limit a two-week federal trial and quickly returned the guilty verdicts after the day’s closing arguments.

Suspended Commissioner Jim Beck has been convicted by jury before a federal court in Atlanta of wire fraud, postal fraud, money laundering and tax fraud. Beck had been charged months after taking office in 2019.

Prosecutors earlier presented evidence at the trial that Beck had orchestrated a plan to embezzle more than $ 2 million from the Georgia Underwriting Association. Before taking office, Beck had led the state-recognized private insurer of last resort for years.

Beck appeared in his defense during the week. He had testified that subcontractors he controlled provided valuable data that helped the GUA increase its profits. However, prosecutors argued the companies had done little real work.

The sentencing is scheduled for October 8th. The judge ordered Beck to be locked up at his home in Carrollton, west of Atlanta, while he awaited sentencing, except for court hearings and medical outings.

The testimony of witnesses in court spanned nine days before the closing statements on Thursday.

After the federal prosecutor’s office dismissed six charges, the jury was called on Thursday to review judgments on 37 charges of postal fraud, wire transfer fraud, money laundering and tax fraud.

Prosecutors argued at the trial that the evidence showed Beck stole more than $ 2 million from the state-approved last resort insurer he managed and devised a plan to distribute money across a number of companies but did not render many of the services that he told investigators that it was performed.

“The evidence makes it very clear that Jim Beck is … a thief,” US Attorney General Brent Gray said in court. “He’s an ordinary, plain, quick-talking – and rich – cheater.”

But defense attorney Bill Thomas had repeatedly told juries that investigators did not understand the insurance business and that prosecutors had not produced enough evidence to convict them. He had told the jury that “the government is just wrong on this case” because Beck’s work turned GUA from a long-time money loser into a highly profitable company.

“A man who leads a company from worst to first – if that company hasn’t made any money in 40 years – cannot intend to harm or deceive the company,” said Thomas.

Prosecutors used their closing arguments to attack Beck’s credibility again, arguing that he had concealed his financial interest in two companies, Green Technology Services and Paperless Solutions, which worked for GUA. They pointed to an email that Beck had written explaining how the payment route finally got to him.

The defense argued that Beck’s work provided vital data that enabled the GUA to charge higher premiums and pay less to reinsurers to share their risk. Beck had testified that a man named Jerry Jordan was the computer programmer who wrote the programs that collected this data. Beck also testified that there were no withdrawals from his bank accounts to pay Jordan because he paid him in cash that he had accumulated in a safe and at his home.

Beck told the jury he did not know where Jordan was today and had no correspondence to prove his relationship.

On Thursday, retired IRS investigator Bill Bruton said he examined Beck’s bank accounts from 2014 to 2018 and concluded that during those years he reported around $ 880,000 in income that was never and believed to have been deposited with a bank were available as cash.

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Follow Jeff Amy on Twitter at http://twitter.com/jeffamy.

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